by Seif
When I first moved to the UK as an international student, I arrived with big goals, and an even bigger list of people telling me, “It’ll be impossible to get work experience in your first year.”
After dozens of rejections from part-time jobs, it honestly felt true at times. But I kept my goal in mind: I wanted to secure an internship after first year, no matter how ambitious it sounded.
I applied to every opportunity I could find. Most of the time, the answer was no. But eventually, one “yes” changed everything and I landed an IT internship at the end of my first academic year.
That single experience opened the door to so many others, including becoming a Student Career Coach here at UWE and starting a Learning Experience Analyst internship with the School of Computing & Creative Technologies. None of this would have happened if I had given up early on.
Here are the biggest lessons I learned, which I hope will help anyone starting their career journey:
Build the right mindset
The first challenge isn’t the application. It’s your mindset. Don’t underestimate yourself and don’t let other people decide what is or isn’t possible for you. If you want something, go for it.
Experience is more than job titles
If you’re new and feel like you have no experience, think again. Projects, hackathons, volunteering, competitions and much more all count as experience so get involved! Volunteering especially is an underrated way to gain experience fast, develop real workplace skills and strengthen your CV.
Tailor every application
Treat your CV and cover letter like your personal branding. Tailor them to each role by referring to the job description. One resource that helps me massively is CareerSet, available for free through Career Toolkit, it checks how well your CV matches the role and gives detailed feedback.
Don’t fear rejections. Use it.
You might get rejected a lot. That’s normal. What matters is reflecting on what you can improve each time. Every application and interview is practice for the next one.
If you know your strengths, stay consistent, keep improving and opportunities will come. Believe in yourself, keep going and trust the process. You never know which application will be the life-changing one.